Science Saturday: Buena Vista Museum entertains and engages with robots, tarantulas and more
Jul. 31—A group of kids hovered around the the robot outside the Buena Vista Museum of Natural History and Science as 5-year-old Perseus Molina asked the machine if it could talk.
Bakersfield Police Officer Nickolas Brackett, who was controlling the bomb squad's electronic scout with what looked like a video game controller, smiled from a distance and made the robot appear to nod.
The group exploded in laughter and a series of follow-up questions ensued in rapid succession.
It was just another Science Saturday in the museum's back lot, where the nonprofit has invited community partners to demonstrate real-life applications of science and teach kids with tactile lessons on the last Saturday of each month.
"This started because we weren't able to do our summer camps this year, because of the lack of teachers really, more than anything," said the museum's executive director, Koral Hancharik. "We just wanted to be able to provide extra science education for the kids and something for parents to do with their kids on a Saturday."
Describing the museum as a "hidden secret" — befitting of its tucked-away position on Chester Avenue alongside Maria's Home Furnishings and across the street from a cosmetology school — once inside it's easy to see how children find learning there fun. Greeting guests on the second floor is a replica of a triceratops skeleton. Nearby parents and children stood mouths agape as a tarantula hobbyist let a spider crawl along their small, outstretched hands.
And, almost as if on cue, David Hanley, an adjunct science professor at the University of La Verne and board member for the museum, walked in with a cart full of learning tools ahead of his presentation, a lesson plan he dubbed "Newtoning Around."
"I'm wild and wacky science — science as a performing art," said Hanley, a retired teacher who also gives presentations to educators on elementary school science methods.
"The idea is that kids learn from fun science," he said. Last month's electricity lesson featured a Van de Graaff generator, and Saturday's session involved Newton's cradle.
The latter is demonstrated with a series of metal balls suspended from cables that knock into each other. The common desk decor demonstrates important principles of physics credited to Sir Isaac Newton, Hanley said: Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and the same for objects at rest; and for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. He also had educational toys to give away as prizes for eager pupils.
David Klein, a former Bakersfield resident in town visiting family members who told him the museum was a must-see, watched as his children joined in the fun of chasing around/being chased by the BPD bomb squad's robot during the morning demonstration.
"We needed something to do with the kids, so this was a good option," Klein said, as Brackett and Senior Officer Juan Orozco explained to the children how the robot helps police officers do their job. Some of the exhibits left the kids "awe-inspired," Klein added.
"There were three to five things my family said we had to do, and this was one of them," he said. "So far, so good. The kids are happy, (then) we're happy."
The next Science Saturday is scheduled for Aug. 27.
